The car was the same as the first that Andretti had raced when his career started.

“He kind of drifted off like he was thinking of memories of 1952,” said Heritage Museum Board Member Bill Nickels. “One of our guys asked if he would like to hear it started up, and when we fired up the engine, Andretti’s arms went up in the air like ‘Yeah!’ Then when we shut it off he said it was a sound he would never forget.”

Andretti came to the Heritage Museum to be interviewed for an NBC Sports special with Sebastian Vettel, the current three-time Formula One Racing world champion. A 15-person television crew built a set inside the museum and brought in an Andretti race car from Atlanta for the taping.

NBC Sport’s crew was one of multiple television crews from around the world that came to the Ypsilanti Heritage Museum over the summer to film features. The Public Broadcasting Service filmed a segment for a January episode of the "Antiques Roadshow"; an Australian television crew visited; WXYZ Detroit filmed a segment for its “Jewels of Detroit” program; and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America brought its inductees to visit.

Former and current auto racing legends Mario Andretti and Sebastian Vettel during an interview filmed at the Ypsilanti Auto Heritage Museum. Photo Courtesy of Bill Nickels

“It was a pretty exciting summer around here,” Nickels said.

Nickels said meeting Andretti was one summer's highlights. Vettel was kept isolated from everyone before and after the interview taping, but Nickels said Andretti was fascinated by the museum.

“Mario hung around and wanted to see everything,” Nickels said. “He was such a personable fellow and he had a great trip down memory lane being here.”

NBC Sports hasn’t provided a date when the interview will air, but it’s expected to run sometime in 2014. Nickels said he isn't sure exactly how NBC found out about the museum. A stranger knocked on the door one morning and said he was looking for a venue to do an auto-related show and wanted to look around. Infinity cars, which sponsors Vettel, later contacted the museum and told them who would be involved.

"There was a little mystery associated with the whole thing," Nickels said.

Prior to that visit, the "Antiques Roadshow," which was filming an episode in the Detroit area, contacted the museum to find out what sort of memorabilia it has. While the show doesn’t deal in cars, Heritage Museum Treasurer John Shook said the show was immediately interested in two 3-foot model Hudsons built for the 1933 World’s Fair.

Only 12 were ever made, no two are alike, and the museum owns two of the 12.

“When they saw the pictures of the two of them here, that’s when they decided they wanted to come,” Shook said, adding that the last time one of the 12 World’s Fair cars was auctioned it fetched $33,000.

The "Antiques Roadshow" visited on June 1 and, and host Mark Walberg also took a trip around Riverside Park in a 1953 Hudson. The Heritage Museum was one of three Detroit-area stops that also included the Motown Museum and Cranbrook.

An Australian television program found the Automotive Heritage Museum while in the area to film the Woodward Dream Cruise. Nickels said the show called to see if they could shoot a feature for a different episode. That lasted for the better part of a Sunday evening, and it will air on Australian television in the early 2014 season. Shook said they were particularly interested in the collection of Hudsons and the building in general.

“People really like that it's an old dealership in the original building from 1933 and that we have a lot of Hudson cars,” he said.

The Motorsports Hall of Fame brought by this year's inductees, including NASCAR legends Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison and Linda Vaughn.

"They just called us up and said they would like to stop in and see us," Nickels said, adding that there said there is an auto racing component to the museum. The crew showed up on a a bus and spent several hours looking around before departing.

In July, WXYZ News in Detroit sent out a television crew to film for its “Jewels of Detroit” segment. Nickels said their visit was particularly well-timed because a car club called the Winged Warriors had their national convention in Ann Arbor that weekend and happened to bring their cars - old Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds - to the museum during the taping.